[Milsurplus] Re:The Secret Wireless War

[Ralph Cameron]

Hue Miller brings up an interesting topic - radio interception. I have read many books on the subject and its still practised but not many resort to cw any longer, except the French military which was clocking out 5 letter cipher groups in the middle of the amateur 75m band as late as last month. 

I have three books in my library: "The Expendables" by Ted Wildman, privately published in Clearwater Fla. The story, although written as fiction, covers the true life of the author from 1933 to 1944 with the Naval Cryptologic Organization. His work involves interception of Japanese Navy commuications, primarily with clandestine intelligence activities in mainland China during WWII. I have a picture of the author manning an Adcock loop in the Gobi Desert. 

Another book written by Lt. Cmdr, USN , Elliott Okins ,"To Spy or not to Spy", covers his activities in a Comint capacity. Printed in U.S.A for Pateo Publishing Co. 480 Naples St.W, Chula Vista Ca 92011

"The Enemy is Listening", by Aileen Clayton, Ballantyne Books, New York.  Clayton was the first woman in British history to be commissioned as an intelligence officer primarly for her work about British women who intercepted enigma signals and the subsequent decoding of same. 

Another book has been published a couple of years ago about the contingent of Canadian Army  Signallers based in Australia who intercepted Japanese radio signals. This fact had been kept secret for over 50 years before the veterans had been recognized. Talks more about the primitive living conditons as well as some of the intercept techniques. The title escapes me at the moment as I loaned the book. 

There are still several hams who worked in these groups during the war- most are reluctant to talk about their experiences for fear some of the methods employed are in use today.  I am hoping to record some of our discussions before they are lost to history and denial by pseudo politicians. 

Ralph Cameron
VE3BBM
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/milsurplus/attachments/20071217/e7189fe9/attachment-0001.htm